Refinishing a Mid-Century Coffee Table

I had refinished a small Lane table before, but sanding down this new coffee table was quite a lot of work. Those spots I had mentioned earlier were very deep stains, so it's taken a good couple hours to sand it down (me and Ely together). It looks like it is almost ready for the first stain, and we have never stained furniture before, unless you count Restore-A-Finish. So here it is now:

Basically, we used that Zip Strip paint remover there and then sanded it down 'til it looks like this. Tomorrow we will finish it up, and pretty soon hopefully I'll have some successful "after" photos to share!

Meanwhile, I do have some other successful "after" photos. It is Ely's compact stereo! We used the dark walnut Restore a Finish and some  Feed 'n Wax. 

Beautiful! 

We also did some thrift store shopping today, and came out with some really good deals.

A great little ashtray I will use to put my keys in.

Pillows! Ely will try these on his new sofa. Such amazing vintage fabrics on these.

Fransiscan ware 'Madiera' glasses. Ely has a collection of Madiera at his house but has never found the glasses 'til today at Value Village. 

And finally, a large C. Jere wall hanging from 1971. Not bad for $7. We were leaving as I saw a store worker outside throw this into a sorting bin. I would have prefered a C. Jere from '61 but this is cool!

 TTFN

Mid Century Fabric

Your local goodwill or value village might be a good place to find amazing vintage fabrics. I found all of these for very very low prices (and plan on making some pillows.. we have enough to make hundreds!)

One of the fabrics was designed by Lawrence Peabody for Sears. Googling him, the most interesting information I found was his obituary from 2002: http://joshuahudelson.com/writing/journalism/globe/Peabody.pdf

He sounds fabulous.

If you are near Ballard, right now there are some more of these big rolls of vintage fabric near the back of the store!